


停電|Blackout

by Acai



Series: ||これは私のホームです|| [2]
Category: haikyuu
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Anxiety, Artist Bokuto Koutarou, Bad Cooking, Bad Jokes, Blackouts, Card Games, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Pets, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Storms, Writer Akaashi Keiji, the cat has a dumb name, they adopt a cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 10:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7841971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acai/pseuds/Acai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which waffles get burnt, a blackout occurs, nobody knows how to play cards, Bokuto brings home a cat and Tsukishima's  college major is revealed (at last). </p><p>((comes after Pyromania, can be read together or separate, but it is recommended to read Pyromania first!))</p>
            </blockquote>





	停電|Blackout

**Author's Note:**

> Because summer's ending for me in a few hours it may be a while before I post the next parts. But~ I am almost finished with the next long addition to this. If you enjoyed Pyromania and Blackout and want to see more from this AU, please read the end note. You'll catch a little clue into Bokuto and Tsukishima's backstory here UvU  
> ((Note: My username did just change from @H0mestuck to @Acai. If this causes lots of trouble with links or such, I have the username saved and can easily switch back. Feel free to message me on Tumblr @Aobajosighs.))

**停電|Blackout**

**_‘Prompt: An addition that takes place a while after Pyromania, maybe fluffier with traces of angst?’_ **

**_-Haikyuufics_ **

**_‘Prompt: Maybe Bokuto ends up bringing a cat home and he and Kuroo end up convincing the others to let it stay’_ **

**_-Sunflowerstorm_ **

**_Feel free to send your prompts to Aobajosighs on Tumblr!_ **

When Akaashi woke up he could already tell that it was going to storm all day that day. His morning class had been cancelled, due to a sick teacher, meaning he’d be home alone with Bokuto for an hour until Tsukishima’s class got out and he returned home. 

Their schedules  all conflicted most of the time. Bokuto would be home from class when Akaashi was gone, Akaashi would get home in time for Bokuto to go to class. Tsukishima would get home and he’d see them both for half an hour before Akaashi had English Literature with Bokuto, and then Tsukishima would disappear to work right as Kuroo got home. And while that meant that it was hard to weasel in an hour or two to spend time with all four of them, they managed to figure it out.

Akaashi slid out of bed, glancing forlornly out the window when he heard the rain pattering down. The floor was cold, and Akaashi took a pair of Tsukishima’s socks off the top of the laundry basket before plodding out into the kitchen. Bokuto worked with his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth, and he moved his body rather than the paper while he worked, leaning sideways or practically folding his hand to draw at an upside down angle.

He drew birds most of the time. When it wasn’t for work or school, he’d sketch owls or crows or the little blue jays that would hop around on their windowsill.  Bokuto liked birds.

Akaashi waited for him to go back to tapping the pencil on his nose again before he pulled the notebook and pencil from him and dropped them onto the coffee table. Akaashi slid his hand into Bokuto’s now free hand, drawing himself up onto the couch and resting his head on Bokuto’s stomach.

“Good morning!” Bokuto’s greetings were enthusiastic, and he didn’t seem very ruffled about being interrupted. Akaashi’s reply came in the form of an incomprehensible mumble, which sounded vaguely like _morning._ “How’d you sleep? Did you take your medicine yet?”

Akaashi shifted his head out of the folds of the hoodie so that they made eye contact. “No. Did you?”

“Nope,” Bokuto agreed, and they both sat quietly for a second until Bokuto sighed reluctantly. “We should probably do that.”

“ _No_ ,” Akaashi whined lazily, knotting his free hand in Bokuto’s hoodie as if it would stop him from standing up. “I’m _comfortable._ ”

Bokuto let out a mournful sound of agreement but stood up anyway, keeping his hand in Akaashi’s and leading the way to the kitchen.

Akaashi thought of the morning when they’d had pancakes and Akaashi had been the only one not to end up covered in batter. He found it funny now, how he’d been so confused by the way they’d worked without speaking, taking their own roles to set the table and finish breakfast. Akaashi watched Bokuto grab cups out of the cabinet and fill them while Akaashi managed the task of trying to open pill bottles (something that took Bokuto nearly fifteen minutes).

He swapped Bokuto a white tablet for the cup, making a face when he took his own medication.

He set the glass on the counter, turning around to look through the fridge for breakfast and instead finding Bokuto holding up a hand for a high five. He must have looked confused when he raised his hand to tap it against Bokuto’s in a halfhearted high five.

“’Cause we totally just got off our asses to do that,” Bokuto explained, beating Akaashi to the fridge. “Which is worthy of a high five and some frozen waffles.”

“Frozen waffles,” Akaashi repeated in a flat monotone, plugging in the toaster anyway.

 Bokuto went about telling Akaashi about one of his assignments and putting the waffles in the toaster. Akaashi thought to himself that he’d rather all his morning classes be cancelled. Bokuto’s hair, which had been washed the night before, was flat and messy on his head. It fell into his eyes even more when it was down, and Bokuto brushed it out of his eyes after nearly every sentence. The rain poured down harder outside and Akaashi appreciated the sound more inside than he would have if he’d been outside in it.

“Why don’t you pin your hair up?” Akaashi asked, interrupting Bokuto’s monologue on why he preferred pencil and paper projects to digital ones. Bokuto paused midsentence, looking like his brain had already completely shifted over to the new topic.

Bokuto slid off the counter, padding down the hallway. He returned almost instantly, holding a handful of hairclips and ties. He slid a clip into his hair, eyes rolled all the way up to try and see his hair as the clip popped back open and fell to the ground. Akaashi stared at it briefly, glancing up after a stretch of seconds. Akaashi picked up one of the hairties, taking one look at how much taller Bokuto was and going to fetch the stepstool from under the bathroom sink.

There was a massive array of things in there that Akaashi was fairly sure they didn’t need, but owned anyway. The stepstool and hairties were included in that list of items.

Placing the stepstool near Bokuto’s feet and climbing up onto it, Akaashi bunched up a section of Bokuto’s hair, wrapping the hair tie around it. He squinted at it, tugging it back out of Bokuto’s hair and trying again. Satisfied with the new results, he climbed down to select a second hair tie off the counter. He untangled the next clump of hair, running his fingers through it. Bokuto’s hair was _long_ when it wasn’t gelled up excessively.

With the massive array of young cousins that Akaashi had, he’d braided hair once or twice before. Bokuto’s hair was the same length as most of the kids with choppy, short hairstyles. He separated it into three pieces, making a tiny braid out of the hair that wouldn’t fit into the hair tie that he’d put in first. Bokuto must have chosen not to question anything, seeming to go along with this new plan.

Akaashi made a matching braid with the remaining hair on the other side of Bokuto’s head, stepping back off the stepstool and deciding to call his work good. Bokuto, looking amused, pulled out his phone to check his new hairstyle.

“Man, why are you taking literature classes? I think we found your true talent today,” Bokuto joked, sliding his phone back into his pocket.

“The waffles are burning,” Akaashi replied.

Bokuto turned around to look at the definitely burning waffles in the toaster.

“Burnt waffles,” he commented sadly.

“Burnt waffles,” Akaashi agreed, unplugging the toaster.

“We can get coffee instead?” Bokuto suggested, throwing their failed meal away.

Akaashi glanced out the window at the rain that was now pouring down almost violently. “….no.”

“No,” Bokuto agreed, groaning dramatically. “This is a breakfast _fiasco,_ ‘Kaashi. It’s a _catastrophe._ It’s a _blunder._ ”

“A debacle,” Akaashi decided to ignore the fact that the kitchen smelled heavily of burning food now. “We can just cook our own breakfast? Kuroo just went shopping, so…”

Bokuto looked readily about to agree with the new plan when the lights went out and the storm decided to crash noisily overhead.

“Fate doesn’t want us to eat breakfast.” Akaashi could hear Bokuto slide open a drawer as he spoke, rummaging loudly. A _clunk_ and a _click_ later, a candle burned faintly on the counter.

“A washout,” Akaashi added to their list mournfully. This was apparently funny, judging by Bokuto’s giggling.

Akaashi glanced up, watching his wide grin while he laughed. With his hair out of his face now, Akaashi could see his expression better. _Which part_ of the situation Bokuto found funny, Akaashi wasn’t sure. Maybe it was all funny. He could see how this was humorous.

He stood up from the chair at the counter, grabbing Bokuto’s hand and shuffling across the floor in the dark. He slid open the patio door, immediately slamming it shut when the wind alone almost yanked him out. Peering out into the dark he mumbled, “the whole city’s lights are out.”

Bokuto didn’t reply right away and Akaashi bit his lip. “Kuroo would have been on the train back right now. Do you think they’re both fine?”

Bokuto waved his worries away. “The most that’s happened to _us_ is burning waffles. Which was a _travesty_ , but. If that’s the worst we’ve run into, they’ll be okay. They’re the ones who are good at handling situations, anyway.”

“Okay,” Akaashi mumbled, sounding unsure. The difference between them and the other two was that they were at home, while Kuroo was most likely on his way home and Tsukishima was in a class half an hour away. The lights could be on still there, though.

A finger tapped his nose and Akaashi glanced up, noticing how uneven his breathing had become in the last minute. “They’ll be okay,” Bokuto repeated, sounding absolutely certain. “Kuroo’s seen plenty of blackouts before and Tsukishima’s in a class. They’ll probably just be late getting home.”

Akaashi worried at his lip, finally turning away from the window and letting Bokuto lead him back to the kitchen, where the candle continued to glow faintly.

“We have more lights around here, I think,” Bokuto said, tilting his head to the side. “I would suggest using our phone’s to look, but we should probably not use those in case this goes on for a long time and we need to use them to contact someone.”

Bokuto picked up the candle with his free hand, and Akaashi saw that he was grinning. “This can be like an adventure!” He announced, maneuvering around the stepstool on his way to the storage closet. He handed Akaashi the candle to hold while he dug through it with his free hand. Akaashi held the candle tightly, deciding that dropping a candle and burning down the entire city was _not_ what they needed right now.

Bokuto made a noise of accomplishment, closing the closet and proudly holding up flashlights. They returned to the kitchen once more, setting the candle down. Bokuto grabbed the lighter again and lit each of the candles that they had. For the first time, Akaashi was glad that Kuroo had a strange obsession with buying them. Akaashi let go of Bokuto’s hand for a minute to check that they had extra batteries before clinging to it once more. They took their flashlights to the living room, placing the candles on the coffee table and each holding a flashlight.

“When Tsukki and I were roommates in college—,”

“You were roommates?” Akaashi asked, worming his way into Bokuto’s lap.

Bokuto hummed in agreement. “Yeah! That’s how we met. Well, we met when we were kids? My aunt lives in America for work and we were visiting her. And Tsukki still lived in America then, and we met there for like, a couple of minutes. I didn’t actually speak a lot of English though. We said like, five words to each other.”

“Did you know you were soulmates?” Akaashi traced his fingers along Bokuto’s hand, focusing on Bokuto’s story instead of the pitch blackness and worry.

“Nope. But I noticed a couple days later that my tattoo had changed. I didn’t know who it was, but I was too young to really care about it, y’know?” Bokuto paused for a second before continuing, sounding fond of the memories. “Anyway, we got assigned as roommates. Tsukki didn’t even talk to me for almost a month, and when he did it was just stuff like, _do you need this outlet?_ And it took like half a year for us to even realize we had the same tattoo.”

A smile twitched onto Akaashi’s lips. That seemed to be a common trend in their group. It took months for them to realize _they_ were all soulmates, after all.

“It was a really crazy coincidence,” Bokuto started talking again, filling up the silence. “But I mean, that’s just how Fate works I guess. Just a bunch of really insane coincidences. Like—what if it wasn’t Kuroo? What if Kuroo had taken a different customer and someone else got rid of your tattoo, and we never even knew?”

Akaashi shrugged. “Then we wouldn’t have known. But we wouldn’t have known that there was a completely alternate universe where we did know. You’d all think it was the three of you and I’d still be completely alright with being alone. It wouldn’t have been sad, we wouldn’t know what we were missing.”

Bokuto fell silent again and Akaashi felt a surge of nerves run through him when he realized he was probably being weird by saying that.

“Well, I’m glad it was Kuroo, then.”

“You would have had Kei and Tetsurou, “Akaashi mumbled, shrugging. “It wouldn’t have been very different.”

 _“But,”_ Bokuto argued. “It totally would have been? Tetsu and I would have driven Tsukki _mad_. And like, no offense to my bro, but I’m not willing to watch those boring movies he loves for some reason, and neither is Tsukki. So you’re the one who watches movies with him, and Tsukki and I get out of that. _And,_ ” Bokuto paused, seeming like he was debating finishing what he was about to say. “And you’re the one who gets it the most?” He pauses, then fumbles to explain himself.

“I mean, Kei and Testu don’t _not_ get it, I mean they try and that means a lot but, it’s nice having somebody else who gets what it’s like to have something like that, that’s always there but not to anyone else and that it isn’t going away ever? I’m not _glad_ you have anxiety, but—,”

“I get it,” Akaashi assured him. “I know what you mean.”

They sat in silence for a while longer until Bokuto announced that the radio is battery operated and, seeing how they have nearly a hundred batteries, they can turn it on and see if there’s any stations around here that’ll work.

So Akaashi clambered off his lap to go and fetch batteries and held a flashlight while Bokuto put the batteries in and turned it on. It immediately began to play an absolutely awful Western song, and Akaashi turned the dial before he had time to hear any more of it.

After looking through the stations for at least fifteen minutes, they decided on an oldies station that was just as terrible as the rest, but in a funnier way.

Akaashi reminded him that they had a set of playing cards that was pretty much just collecting dust on the DVD shelf. Bokuto fetched them from the shelf and they attempted to read the instructions to figure out how to play Trash and BS. The flashlights keep falling off the couch where they’re perched and it’s hard to read the cards in the dark, and the storm’s become monstrous outside, and the radio keeps playing the hilariously terrible songs. Akaashi felt the anxiety blend into the contentment, though, and they must have struggled through the card games for at least another hour when the door swung open.

Akaashi scrambled up, ruining their card game by scattering it with his feet, darting into the doorway and flinging himself at Kuroo before he even had time to take his shoes off.

“Hey!” Kuroo greeted, nearly tripping trying to step into the kitchen in the dark. “It’s really good to see you, but I’m completely soaked and you’re going to be too.”

That sounded fine to Akaashi, but he disentangled himself regardless.

Bokuto appeared with the flashlights, greeting Kuroo with an enthusiastic, “bro!” and then proceeding to have a brief and sloppy make out session with said ‘bro’.

“No homo,” Kuroo commented, absolutely grinning.

“Absolutely, no homo,” Bokuto agreed. Akaashi pointed out that Kuroo was dripping water onto the floor.

Kuroo disappeared to towel off and change into dry clothes, deciding to shower when there was actually light.

((“Bro,” Kuroo reasoned. “If you shower with me, then _you_ can be my light.”))

Kuroo joined them sitting on the floor, and they did their best to teach him how to play their messily learned card games. The radio began to play another shitty oldie.

“So, Kei texted me when I was walking home. He said his class let out early when they heard about the storm on its way,” Kuroo said, pausing in whatever he was saying to comment that his mom used to play this song all the time. “He said he tried to text you, but they weren’t sending to here. Anyway, he’ll be back in…like, half an hour by now.” Kuroo played a card, grinning when Bokuto yelled an enthusiastic, _“bullshit!”_ He overturned the card, showing them that it really was an ace. Bokuto made a noise of defeat. 

“You walked all the way back in the storm?” Akaashi asked, playing his own card unchallenged.

“Yeah, it totally sucked. It’s _really_ windy—I’d hate to be a bird in this weather.”

“ _Man,_ you’re right. It would suck to be an animal in one of these storms.”

“Why does it smell like something’s burnt?” Kuroo asked suddenly, pausing in the card game to look back to the kitchen.

“A tragedy,” Akaashi replied.

“A farce,” Bokuto added.

“Mockery,”

“Absurdity,”

“A sham,”

“Burnt waffles.”

Kuroo glanced back at them, seeming to roll with this answer as if it were a perfectly understandable one. Bokuto shifted his arm and knocked the flashlight down again. When Kuroo picked it back up again, he pointed it at Bokuto, opening his mouth to say something and instead laughing when his eyes landed on the braids in their boyfriend's hair  

“ _Dude,_ where’d you get that awesome hairdo?”

Bokuto grinned in response, flipping his hair like he wasin a dramatic hair commercial. “Did you know our bro Akaashi is secretly a hairstylist _pretending_ to be a literature major?”

“ _What?_ You’ve been holding out on us this whole time!”

And somehow this ends in Kuroo having braids running through his hair, messier than Bokuto’s due to the lack of light.

By the time Tsukishima arrives home, Akaashi’s braided his own hair to match. Akaashi doesn’t tackle him like he did Kuroo, just now drying off from the first hug. He does give him a fast kiss while Bokuto and Kuroo greet him with enthusiastic yells.

“What burned in here?” Tsukishima asked, eyes flitting over to the kitchen in the same way as Kuroo’s.

Silences presses in the darkness for a cluster of seconds longer before Bokuto says, “I’m out of words.”

“Buffoonery,” Akaashi replies, hearing Bokuto groan again at his second loss.

 

Tsukishima joins them for cards, but he’s actually aware of the real way to play and chides them for all their strange rules.

They play cards for nearly another hour before the lights flicker back on dully and Akaashi’s so relieved he could probably cry.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The minute that it stopped raining Bokuto was insistent that they go outside and check for animals. Kuroo agrees with him, and Akaashi caves in when he sees the genuine worry on his boyfriend’s face. Tsukishima, however hard he tries to protest, is outnumbered three to one.

The rain stopped hours ago, after continuing on for almost two days, and the roads are still completely flooded. The grass is soggy and filled with water and there’s broken bits of trees and roofs all over. Kuroo comments that it looks more like a little hurricane than a rainstorm. They see other people outside, some searching for pets, some out surveying the damage, some just sitting and watching. A mother chides her boys for playing in the mud.

They split up, and Kuroo goes to check the back of the apartment building while Bokuto checks the next street over. Akaashi lingers with Tsukishima, though he does make his boyfriend check the parking lot by the gas station for Bokuto’s sake.

When they return home nearly thirty minutes later, content with the lack of any injured animals, they hear that Kuroo didn’t find anything either.

Bokuto returns home with a bloody cat. A _literally_ bloody cat.

It’s little and brown, and Akaashi can tell from here that it’s fluffy. They pawn the cat off on Tsukishima to figure out where he’s hurt.

((“I’m not a _vet_ ,” “yeah, but a human doctor is basically the same thing.”))

Bringing the kitten back inside, Tsukishima checks over the cat before deciding that they won’t be able to tell until he’s had a bath. Akaashi goes to run it, following Tsukishima’s instructions not to make it too hot, but just lukewarm. He lingers while Tsukishima washes the kitten carefully, listening to it start to warm up and meow loudly in protest.

“He’s not very scared,” Akaashi mumbles.

“No,” Tsukishima agrees, using their shampoo to get off the worst of the dirt. “But he’s probably hungry. Do we have any chicken?”

Akaashi goes to check, discovering that they lack chicken but do have turkey. When Tsukishima returns, the tiny cat is bundled up in a towel and Tsukishima hands him to Bokuto.

“How is he?” Kuroo asks, peering over his laptop.

“She,” Tsukishima replies, “is alright. She’s got a cut on her forehead. It’s not very deep, but head wounds bleed a lot, which explains the amount of blood on her. There should be a vet at the shelter who can fix it up if it’s too deep.”

“ _What?_ ” Bokuto protests, closing his laptop. “The shelter?”

“Cats take money and time—,”

“ _Tsukki,_ ”

“And they take responsibility.”

“We just saved her life!” Kuroo protests. “We can’t just ditch her! Besides, she’s fluffy?? You can’t just leave an adorable, _fluffy_ kitten somewhere.”

“If she’s that cute, she’ll get adopted faster.” Tsukishima goes to get a glass of water, seemingly unfazed.

The kitten wrestles out of the blanket, walking across the counter on wobbly, tiny legs. Akaashi watches her walk over to him bravely, seemingly completely unafraid. He picks her up off the counter before she can walk right off, placing her in his lap so that he doesn’t have to worry about dropping her. She begins to purr, bumping her head against his chest. Akaashi frets briefly, worried about practically a hundred and one things pertaining to the situation.

And then she makes herself comfortable, still purring, and lays down in his lap. He looks up to find his boyfriends all watching him, Bokuto giving him a look that says _I told you so._ Kuroo seems mildly nervous about the anxiety coming from Akaashi pertaining to the cat on his lap, and Tsukishima looks completely unfazed still.

“We’re keeping the cat,” Akaashi says, hesitantly dropping a hand down onto her head. She begins to purr more loudly. Bokuto cheers loudly, and Tsukishima’s outnumbered again.

 

Now that the dirt and mud is washed out of the cat’s fur, it’s obvious that she’s not brown. She’s a gray color, and speckles of white cover her face and back. Kuroo has taken to calling her _Tetris,_ though he doesn’t have a reason.

Akaashi’s pretty sure he just plucked a word off the top of his head. Up until he dubbed her after the game, they’d all just been calling her tiny cat, in mockery of Bokuto forgetting the word ‘kitten’.

They take her to the vet, and when they register her they're required to pick an official name. None of them has anything better, so she officially becomes Tiny Cat Tetris.

Tiny Cat Tetris makes herself at home quickly, helping herself to their food. Akaashi’s pretty sure most people don’t let their cats on the furniture, but Tiny Cat’s taken over the end of their bed and the smaller couch.

Tsukishima, who was completely opposed to the cat in the beginning, accepts her once they take the cat back to the vet after a week of her being sick to discover that she can’t drink milk either. Bokuto calls them lactose intolerance buddies, and Tsukishima seems to like letting her sit on his lap while he writes essays.

Bokuto seems pretty damn proud of himself for finding Tiny Cat and bringing her home. He brings home a blue collar, claiming it matches her eyes. There’s a tag on the collar with their address and _Tiny Cat Tetris_ on it. Akaashi’s completely sure that somebody’s going to read that collar and judge them harshly.

The _kitten of all things_ manages to scare Akaashi at first, because don’t have cats have claws and teeth and he really doesn’t want to drop her or stop on what’s left of her tail, but she has a way of sitting in his lap and purring loudly when his breathing gets shallow, and somehow this manages to calm him down much faster than the breathing tricks he got from his therapist. Akaashi’s never asked, but he’s pretty sure that Tiny Cat helps Bokuto out in the same way when he’s having a low day.

And Tiny Cat Tetris, who likes to go outside on their back porch and sometimes disappeared for an hour or two, always returned home before too long to go back to eating their food and sleeping at the foot of their bed. Their family unofficially becomes five, and Tiny Cat’s schedule always works out with everyone else’s.

 

((Tsukishima regrets his agreement of letting the cat stay when she picks up a knack for knocking over plants.))

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: I'm debating an addition to the Pyromania series that's a full story. Unlike Pyromnia, there would be multiple chapters that would come at different update times as I wrote them. Because the story's already developed to the point where things seemed to have mellowed out, there's not many options for plot. My tumblr is Aobajosighs, feel free to follow it for frequent updates on the series. I'd love to hear your feedback on the idea.


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